Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün fe‘ūlün

Nevā-yı ‘ışḳuña çün ḳıldum āheng
Ne var ḳānūn iderse nālemi çeng
Gözüme ḳan görinür kim dil ü cān
İderler tīr-i ġamzeñçün ḳatı ceng
Gözümden gitme billāh ḳanlu yaşum
Ne ḫoş düşdüñ leb-i la‘line hem-reng
Görüp dil ḳatı göñlin didi yārüñ
Belī āb-ı revān içre olur seng
Şol ucdan baġrumuz ḫūn oldı k’ey dil
Ki ṭutdı şöyle peykān sīnede jeng
Lebüñ sırrın Münīrī ṣormaġ içün
Bulur furṣat velīkin şöyle key teng

In English

1. Since I have tuned myself to the melody (nevâ) of your love, is it any wonder if the harp (çeng) takes my lament as its kanun (rule, model)? ("Ḳānūn" means both a rule and the name of an instrument.)

2. Blood appears in my eye; for heart and soul wage a fierce battle with each other over the arrow of your glance.

3. My bloody tear, for God's sake do not leave my eye; how well you have come to share the colour of the beloved's ruby lip.

4. Seeing the beloved's hard heart, the heart said: Yes, there is stone within flowing water. (Within the beloved's body, clear as water, there is a heart of stone.)

5. O heart, our breast has turned to blood on that account ("uç"), for the arrowhead has rusted thus in the breast. ("Uç" can be read both as cause and as the tip of an arrow.)

6. Münîrî finds an occasion to ask the secret of her lip, but that occasion (or that mouth) is very narrow.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a Turkish ghazal of six couplets; in the edition it is the hundred and sixty-sixth of the Turkish ghazals (tg 166). The metre is "mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün fe‘ūlün"; this short pattern sets it apart from the long remel patterns used in most of the surrounding ghazals. The ghazal has no redif (refrain) and does not appear in Ersoy's list of redifs in the introduction (p. 9); the rhyme is the sound "-eng": āheng, çeng, ceng, reng, seng, jeng and teng. The same rhyme occurs a few ghazals earlier in tg 161 and also in tg 154; this closeness is our own observation. The ghazal is found in three divan manuscripts: VT 137a, VY 114b and Ü 43b. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet is built on a congruence of musical images (tenasüp): nevâ, āheng, ḳānūn and çeng. The Kubbealtı dictionary gives "nevâ" the senses of melody, harmony, sound, and also records that it is the name of a makam (mode) in Turkish music. According to the Kubbealtı dictionary's entry "çeng", this word is the name of a stringed instrument resembling a harp. The word "ḳānūn" can be read both in the sense of rule, model and as the name of an instrument; this is a double entendre (tevriye). The lover's lament is so harmonious that the harp takes it as its model. It may also be thought that "āheng" in the couplet can be read both as tuning and as intention, inclination; this is our own reading.

In the second couplet heart and soul fight over the arrow of the glance. The same personification is found in the fourth couplet of tg 161; there soul and heart wage "ceng" (battle) with the lover. In the third couplet the bloody tear and the beloved's ruby lip meet in the same colour. The lover begs the tear not to leave, for it is precious because it resembles the beloved's lip. The fourth couplet explains the beloved's hard heart through an observation of nature: there is stone within flowing water. We have not been able to verify whether this saying rests on a proverb. The idea that the beloved's body is clear as water while her heart is stone brings the couplet close to irsal-i mesel (the use of a proverbial saying).

The fifth couplet contains the word "jeng". The Kubbealtı dictionary explains the Persian word "jeng" as rust, mould. The arrowhead remaining in the breast has rusted and drowned the heart in blood. The word "uç" in the phrase "Şol ucdan" means "on that account"; but mentioned together with the arrowhead it also recalls the tip of an arrow. This double reading is our own observation. In the pen-name couplet (mahlas) the poet finds an occasion to ask the secret of the lip, but both that mouth and that occasion are very narrow. The word "teng" (narrow) says that the secret fits into a moment as narrow as the small mouth.

Bibliography

Online sources